Wednesday, August 9, 2017

U.S. Sanctions Bill Adds More Targets To The List; U.S. Set To Sanction Itself Into Isolation

With the new U.S. Sanctions bill having been passed by a united Congress and signed by a President allegedly opposed to it, U.S. sanctions are now all over the news. But the sanctions bill was not just a step toward a second Cold War with Russia, the bill was also aimed at North Korea, Iran, China, and even Europe. In his excellent study of the bill, “U.S. Sanctions: A ‘Loony Tunes’ Bad Remake; ‘Irreversible Decline Of The U.S. As A Global Superpower,” F. William Engdahl described the legislation as being a “nuclear barrel bomb with sanctions flying in all directions.” Sadly, Engdahl is right.

Without going into a detailed analysis of the bill, suffice it to say that the it is aimed directly at Russia, Iran, and North Korea but that it threatens anyone and any country that does business with specific elements of the Iranian, North Korean, or Russian economy. This means that China, Germany, and the European Union as a whole have been put on notice that business as usual will subject them to United States sanctions, “allies” or not.

Once again, the United States is declaring to the world that it is the emperor of the planet and any country (save for Israel) who acts in opposition to its whims is in danger of sanctions or worse.

What’s ironic is that the United States has become so fond of using sanctions as a response to the slightest dissent that it appears soon the U.S. will isolate itself so much that North Korea will have more diplomatic ties with other nations than America. If America continues to implement sanctions against any and all countries that do not bend to its will, it will wake up one day with its embassies empty, a non-existent export market, and international news reports referring to the “secretive and reclusive state” known as the United States of America. That is, if it can manage to keep its troops at home.

At least Free Trade would be ended. Unfortunately, so would all trade. Diplomacy would be a dead art, even more dead than it is today in a country whose answer to any dissent is sanctions first, bombing second, and total invasion third.

If sanctions are imposed on additional countries – specifically China and the EU – America may be moving toward sanctioning more countries than it is willing to work with. Ironically, these sanctions – if countries prepare and react properly (i.e. encouraging domestic production, domestic investment, control of national banks, etc.), will end up benefiting the target countries such as what has happened recently with the Russian agricultural economy so long as they move away from imports of items that can be reasonably produced at home.

But sanctions should not be considered a positive development. They are not trade policy. They are a blockade. Sanctions are a political failure and/or an aggressive and they can be considered, as Congressman Ron Paul once noted, an act of war.

Still, as America draws the iron curtain upon itself, some are now concerned that the bill will result in the targeting of independent media outlets, long labeled “Russian propaganda” sites simply because they do not tow the mainstream narrative of the disproven “Russian hacking,” Putin as the new Hitler, or America’s freedom fighters in Syria.

While countries like North Korea have been isolated from the world due to mostly outside forces and sanctions imposed upon it, the United States is isolating itself sanctioning any and all who disagree with it, all the while reaffirming the world’s concern that it is the greatest threat to peace and security on the planet.

America’s economic death and its empire marching across the world have ruined any chance that it can lead by example or positive reinforcement and thus it can only resort to sanctions and warfare. Unfortunately for the United States, one of those methods is becoming increasingly irrelevant and the other is becoming increasingly impotent.

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Quoth The Raven, "Veritas"

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